Questions for you serious comp guys....

[adolpho]

I don't know if any of ya'll have ever watched the Food Network's Hamburger Cookoff. They provide a Weber Kettle, Kingsford, and a Chimney starter. It levels the playing field. Some of the competitors practice at home with the same equipment and some don't. You can tell who's prepared when they start cooking.
In other words, someone asked what could the sponsors get out of this. Well, everyone would start cooking (purchasing) with Royal Oak or Kingsford so that way they are used to using it and know how it performs. They'd also start buying the standard grill/smoker that will be used for competitions so they are constantly practicing, even when doing just a regular backyard cookout.

It's a neat idea, but there are some who feel that real bbq is done with logs and so on. The circuit would hate to lose those competitors. From my experience, at Texas competitions (LSBS & IBCA), most cooks use wood burning offset pits over charcoal and pellets. Not sure if that's the same in KCBS, FBA or MIM.
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"Tag line? We don't need no stinkin' tag line!"

[Rub N Smoke]

[mhoodnc]

I think that peoples choice should be the biggest score influence, it would also make these events a hell of alot more entertaining to the event attender.

Judges may be better at discerning smoke taste and tenderness, but I think I want my q to be the best liked by the whole population rather than a few judges. Most of these contests draw tons of people who don't get to sample until the judges have their say. Most of the attendees fill up on bratwurst, catered bbq, and roach coach food. The supervisors of the contests tend to not mention this fact. Screw the health department, let the Public eat real bbq.

[SmokinOkie]

Couple of years ago, they did just this, had the BBQ All-Star cookoff. Chris Lilly moderated. 3 cooks just showed up and they were provided the cooker and the ingredients.

My favorite was having to build your own pork cooker from cinder blocks.

[SIMPLE Q]

I hope the BBQ comp scene never reaches that level. We have enough over done, over advertised functions in this country already. The more "big money" gets involved with something the more big money it will cost us. It is expensive enough now.
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Steve H
Simple Q Cooking Team
The Pork University